Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Apple’s New Device Looks Like a Winner. From 1988.

By James Barron January 28, 2010 11:08 amJanuary 28, 2010 11:08 am

Courtesy of University of IllinoisThe original 1988 Tablet team, which won a contest to describe and design a computer for the year 2000. “Some things we sort of got right,” said Steven Skiena, a member of the team who is now a professor at Stony Brook University. He is holding a mock-up of the team’s design.

The contest, in 1988, was to describe and design a computer for the year 2000.

Steven Skiena, who lives in Manhattan and is a now a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, was on the team that won — for suggesting a tablet computer. Oh, and the contest was sponsored by Apple Computer. (Everyone knows what Apple unveiled on Wednesday.)

So he reread the prize-winning essay. “Some things we sort of got right,” he said.

The look, for example. The team’s computer was about the same size as a “standard notebook” with 8½-by-11-inch pages. The iPad is a bit smaller: Apple says the device itself is 7.47 by 9.56 inches. The screen is a bit smaller.

The team, five graduate students at the University of Illinois, envisioned “a high-resolution touchscreen that yields slightly to the touch,” according to the paper they submitted at the time. They also called for full-color display to handle video and video communications.

Hong Kong University
of Science and TechnologySteven Skiena was on a team that won a 1988 contest — for suggesting a tablet computer.

“One thing we were very proud of was the idea that you could type on the screen,” Dr. Skiena said. The iPad has a typewriter keyboard that appears to be similar to the iPhone’s, only larger, and the screen responds to finger commands the way the iPhone does. The team imagined using a stylus as an input device for “the ultimate integration between text and graphics.”

“We did get right the idea that your computer would communicate locally with its environment, which is like the equivalent of what Bluetooth is,” Dr. Skiena said. “We called that our infrared bar. We also had the vision that this was going to be hooked up to a cellphone. We had the vision that there were various peripherals. We had a vision that the computer could detect if it was stolen and call up and tell the police where it was.”

They also rejected the idea that the computer of 2000 rely on speech recognition. “Science fiction seems to specialize in talking to computers and listening to what they say,” the team wrote in their paper. “However, people do not really want to talk to computers. In many contexts where a portable computer would be used … talking out loud is not an acceptable behavior.”

If those were the hits, what about the misses? “Of course, we were ahead of the World Wide Web, so there’s no notion of that,” Dr. Skiena said. “We figured you’d have some supercomputer you’d offload your big computations to.”

Also, the team’s table promised a gigabyte of storage. “A gigabyte!” Dr. Skiena said. “That’s not very much now.”

So if that was the computer of 2000, as imagined in 1988, what about imagining the computer of 2025?

He said the first consideration would be, will the computers of 2025 be recognizable as computers?

“Back when we wrote the article, it was pretty clear what a computer is,” he said. “Now, is your cellphone a computer? The vision would be every object you have will have enough smarts in it that it will arguably be more powerful than computers of today. You know, your toaster. I might even say your bottle of Coke, for all I know. Actually, your bottle of Coke will probably have its own Internet address. So it may be computers will disappear as separate objects. That’s what I’m really saying.”

Not so dear Mr. or Mrs. X: Precisely because they do NOT have a social life is the reason why they came up with such a brilliant idea back in the late 80’s. Now, who has a social life and what have they accomplished that deeply BENEFITS society at large? To wit: LiLo, JLo, Paris, Madge, maybe you and your parents too? Like Yogi Berra said, if you see a fork in the road, take it. Right?

Went to an IVY league school in the 90’s early, hung out with a bunch of people that looked like this. Worked for NASA, etc… they partied the hardest, ether anyone?, and the smart woman were wild too. Speak not of what ye know not of.

It seems kind of noteworthy, at least for this article, that the founder and creator of wolframalpha.com is pictured in this photo and it doesn’t garner a mention. I’m pretty sure that’s Stephen Wolfram on the far left or maybe it’s Peter Jackson. Either way, seems worth mentioning.

Interesting responses. It was really just a superficial joke and was more of a commentary on our tech-obsession as a society and among this group. If these guys went on to create Google or the like and became millionaires, is that to be congratulated? Is Apple or the I-Pod or I-Pad or any of our new consumer tech developments curing cancer or addressing real problem, or is it just creating mostly useless (yet fun) consumer products for the wealthy?

What's Next

Looking for New York Today?

New York Today is still going strong! Though no longer on City Room, New York Today continues to appear every weekday morning, offering a roundup of news and events for the city. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com or in the morning, on The New York Times homepage or its New York section. You can also receive it via email.

Lookin for Metropolitan Diary?

Metropolitan Diary continues to publish! Since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has been a place for New Yorkers, past and present, to share odd fleeting moments in the city. We will continue to publish one item each weekday morning and a round-up in Monday's print edition. You can find the latest entries at nytimes.com/diary and on our New York section online.

About

City Room®, a news blog of live reporting, features and reader conversations about New York City, has been archived. Send questions or suggestions by e-mail.